Environmental design is the process of addressing surrounding
environmental parameters when devising plans, programs, policies,
buildings, or products. It seeks to create spaces that will enhance the
natural, social, cultural and physical environment of particular areas. Classical prudent design may have always considered environmental factors; however, the environmental movement beginning in the 1940s has made the concept more explicit.
Environmental design can also refer to the applied arts and
sciences dealing with creating the human-designed environment. These
fields include architecture, geography, urban planning, landscape architecture, and interior design. Environmental design can also encompass interdisciplinary areas such as historical preservation and lighting
design. In terms of a larger scope, environmental design has
implications for the industrial design of products: innovative
automobiles, wind power generators, solar-powered equipment, and other kinds of equipment could serve as examples. Currently, the term has expanded to apply to ecological and sustainability issues.
Core Principals
1.
Sustainability - Minimizing the environmental impact of human
activities through the use of renewable resources, energy-efficient
technologies, and eco-friendly materials.
2. Functionality - Designing spaces that are practical,
accessible, and tailored to the needs and behaviors of the people who
will use them.
3. Aesthetics - Incorporating elements of visual appeal, sensory experience, and emotional connection into the design.
4. Holistic Approach - Considering the interconnected social, economic, and ecological factors that shape the environment.
Modern Uses
Today,
environmental design is applied across a wide range of scales, from
small-scale residential projects to large-scale urban planning
initiatives. Key areas of focus include:
- Sustainable architecture and green building
- Landscape architecture and urban planning
- Transportation design and infrastructure
- Industrial design and product development
- Interior design and space planning
Environmental designers often collaborate with experts from
disciplines such as engineering, ecology, sociology, and public policy
to create holistic solutions that address the complex challenges of
modern environments.
History
The photo shows a training meeting with factory workers in a stainless steel ecodesign company from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The first traceable concepts of environmental designs focused primarily on solar heating, which began in Ancient Greece around 500 BCE. At the time, most of Greece had exhausted its supply of wood for fuel, leading architects to design houses that would capture the solar energy
of the sun. The Greeks understood that the position of the sun varies
throughout the year. For a latitude of 40 degrees in summer the sun is
high in the south, at an angle of 70 degrees at the zenith, while in
winter, the sun travels a lower trajectory, with a zenith
of 26 degrees. Greek houses were built with south-facing façades which
received little to no sun in the summer but would receive full sun in
the winter, warming the house. Additionally, the southern orientation
also protected the house from the colder northern winds. This clever
arrangement of buildings influenced the use of the grid pattern of ancient cities. With the north–south orientation of the houses, the streets of Greek cities mainly ran east–west.
The practice of solar architecture continued with the Romans, who similarly had deforested much of their native Italian Peninsula by the first century BCE. The Roman heliocaminus,
literally 'solar furnace', functioned with the same aspects of the
earlier Greek houses. The numerous public baths were oriented to the
south. Roman architects added glass to windows to allow for the passage
of light and to conserve interior heat as it could not escape. The
Romans also used greenhouses to grow crops all year long and to
cultivate the exotic plants coming from the far corners of the Empire. Pliny the Elder wrote of greenhouses that supplied the kitchen of the Emperor Tiberius during the year.
Along with the solar orientation of buildings and the use of
glass as a solar heat collector, the ancients knew other ways of
harnessing solar energy. The Greeks, Romans and Chinese developed curved mirrors
that could concentrate the sun's rays on an object with enough
intensity to make it burn in seconds. The solar reflectors were often
made of polished silver, copper or brass.
Early roots of modern environmental design began in the late 19th century with writer/designer William Morris,
who rejected the use of industrialized materials and processes in
wallpaper, fabrics and books his studio produced. He and others, such as
John Ruskin felt that the industrial revolution would lead to harm done to nature and workers.
By integrating renewable energy sources such as solar photovoltaic, solar thermal, and even geothermal energy into structures, it is possible to create zero emission
buildings, where energy consumption is self-generating and
non-polluting. It is also possible to construct "energy-plus buildings"
which generate more energy than they consume, and the excess could then
be sold to the grid. In the United States, the LEED Green Building Rating System rates structures on their environmental sustainability.
Environmental design and planning
Environmental design and planning
is the moniker used by several Ph.D. programs that take a
multidisciplinary approach to the built environment. Typically
environmental design and planning programs address architectural history
or design (interior or exterior), city or regional planning, landscape
architecture history or design, environmental planning, construction
science, cultural geography, or historic preservation. Social science
methods are frequently employed; aspects of sociology or psychology can
be part of a research program.
The concept of "environmental" in these programs is quite broad
and can encompass aspects of the natural, built, work, or social
environments.
Virginia Tech until recently offered the degree program, but has since replaced it with programs in "architecture and design research" and "planning, governance, and globalization".
Fanshawe College in London, Ontario Canada offers an honours bachelor's degree called "Environmental Design and planning.
Examples
of the environmental design process include use of roadway noise
computer models in design of noise barriers and use of roadway air
dispersion models in analyzing and designing urban highways.
Designers consciously working within this more recent framework
of philosophy and practice seek a blending of nature and technology,
regarding ecology as the basis for design. Some believe that strategies
of conservation, stewardship, and regeneration can be applied at all
levels of scale from the individual building to the community, with
benefit to the human individual and local and planetary ecosystems.
Specific examples of large scale environmental design projects include:
Molded pulp uses recycled newsprint to form package components. Here, researchers are molding packaging from straw
Sustainable packaging is packaging materials and methods that result in improved sustainability. This involves increased use of life cycle inventory (LCI) and life cycle assessment (LCA) to help guide the use of packaging which reduces the environmental impact and ecological footprint. It includes a look at the whole of the supply chain: from basic function, to marketing, and then through to end of life (LCA) and rebirth. Additionally, an eco-cost to value ratio can be useful The goals are to improve the long term viability and quality of life for humans
and the longevity of natural ecosystems. Sustainable packaging must
meet the functional and economic needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainability is not necessarily an end state but is a continuing process of improvement.
Sustainable packaging is a relatively new addition to the environmental considerations for packaging (see Packaging and labeling).
It requires more analysis and documentation to look at the package
design, choice of materials, processing, and life-cycle. This is not
just the vague "green movement" that many businesses and companies have
been trying to include over the past years. Companies implementing
eco-friendly actions are reducing their carbon footprint, using more recycled materials and reusing more package components. They often encourage suppliers, contract packagers, and distributors to do likewise.
Environmental marketing claims on packages need to be made (and read) with caution. Ambiguous greenwashing titles such as green packaging and environmentally friendly
can be confusing without specific definition. Some regulators, such as
the US Federal Trade Commission, are providing guidance to packagers
Companies have long been reusing and recycling packaging when
economically viable. Using minimal packaging has also been a common goal
to help reduce costs. Recent years have accelerated these efforts based
on social movements, consumer pressure, and regulation. All phases of
packaging, distribution, and logistics are included.
Sustainable packaging is not focused on just recycling. Just as
packaging is not the only eco target, although it is still top of mind
for many. Right or wrong, the packaging is frequently scrutinized and
used as the measure of a company's overall sustainability, even though
it may contribute only a small percentage to the total eco-impact
compared to other things, such as transportation, and water and energy
use.
Environmental Impacts
Impacts
of packaging originate from three main stages including feedstock
sourcing, production of polymers and packaging, and the end of life
treatment of the packaging. Emissions from each stage contribute to climate change, air pollution, acidification,
and other environmental issues. Food waste is another prominent issue
as one third of food meant for human consumption is lost. Sustainable
packaging aims to address properties of food, for example chemical and
microbiological properties, in order to limit packaging and food waste.
Criteria
The
criteria for ranking and comparing packaging based on their
sustainability is an active area of development. General guidance,
metrics, checklists, and scorecards are being published by several
groups.
Government, standards organizations, consumers, retailers, and packagers are considering several types of criteria.
Each organization words the goals and targets a little differently. In general, the broad goals of sustainable packaging are:
Functional – product protection, safety, regulatory compliance, etc.
Cost effective – if it is too expensive, it is unlikely to be used
Use of minimal materials – reduced packaging, reduced layers of
packaging, lower mass (product to packaging ratio), lower volume, etc.
Energy efficiency, total energy content and usage, use of renewable energy, use of clean energy, etc.
Recycled content – as available and functional. For food contact materials,
there are special safety considerations, particularly for use of
recycled plastics and paper. Regulations are published by each country
or region.
Recyclability – recovery value, use of materials which are frequently and easily recycled, reduction of materials which hinder recyclability of major components, etc.
Worker impact: occupational health, safety, clean technology, etc.
The chosen criteria are often used best as a basis of comparison for
two or more similar packaging designs; not as an absolute success or
failure. Such a multi-variable comparison is often presented as a radar chart (spider chart, star chart, etc.).
Benefits
Some
aspects of environmentally sound packaging are required by regulators
while others are decisions made by individual packagers. Investors,
employees, management, and customers can influence corporate decisions
and help set policies. When investors seek to purchase stock, companies
known for their positive environmental policy can be attractive.
Potential stockholders and investors see this as a solid decision:
lower environmental risks lead to more capital at cheaper rates.
Companies that highlight their environmental status to consumers can
boost sales as well as product reputation. Going green is often a sound
investment that can pay off.
Alongside the environmental benefits of adopting sustainable
packaging, eco-friendly packaging can increase sales, reduce packaging
cost, and increase the image of a company's brand alongside the rising
awareness spread regarding environmental impact. There has also been
found a direct correlation between a company's implementation of
sustainable packaging and a more sustainable supply chain management.
Alternatives such as bio-based plastics that are abundant, low cost,
and biodegradable, offer a possibility of reducing use of petroleum
resources and carbon dioxide emissions.
Plastic packages or plastic components are sometimes part of a valid
environmental solution. Other times, alternatives to petroleum and
natural gas based plastic are desirable.
Materials have been developed or used for packaging without
plastics, especially for use-cases in which packaging can't be
phased-out – such as with policies for national grocery store
requirements – for being needed for preserving food products or other
purposes.
A plant proteins-based biodegradable packaging alternative to plastic was developed based on research about spider silk which is known for its high strength and similar on the molecular level.
Researchers at the Agricultural Research Service are looking into using dairy-based films as an alternative to petroleum-based packaging. Instead of being made of synthetic polymers, these dairy-based films would be composed of proteins such as casein and whey, which are found in milk. The films would be biodegradable
and offer better oxygen barriers than synthetic, chemical-based films.
More research must be done to improve the water barrier quality of the
dairy-based film, but advances in sustainable packaging are actively
being pursued.
Sustainable packaging policy cannot be individualized by a
specific product. Effective legislation would need to include
alternatives to many products, not just a select few; otherwise, the
positive impacts of sustainable packing will not be as effective as they
need in order to propel a significant reduction of plastic packaging.
Finding alternatives can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from
unsustainable packaging production and reduce dangerous chemical
by-products of unsustainable packaging practices.
Another alternative to commonly used petroleum plastics are
bio-based plastics. Examples of bio-based plastics include natural
biopolymers and polymers synthesized from natural feedstock monomers,
which can be extracted from plants, animals, or microorganisms. A
polymer that is bio-based and used to make plastic materials is not
necessarily compostable or bio-degradable. Natural biopolymers can be
often biodegraded in the natural environment while only a few bio-based
monomer bio-based plastics can be. Bio-based plastics are a more
sustainable option in comparison to their petroleum based counterparts,
yet they only account for 1% of plastics produced annually as of 2020.
Costs
The process of engineering more environmentally acceptable packages can include consideration of the costs. Some companies claim that their environmental packaging program is cost effective.
Some alternative materials that are recycled/recyclable and/or less
damaging to the environment can lead to companies incurring increased
costs. Though this is common when any product begins to carry the true
cost of its production (producer pays, producer responsibility laws,
take-back laws). There may be an expensive and lengthy process before
the new forms of packaging are deemed safe to the public, and approval
may take up to two years.
It is important to note here, that for most of the developed world,
tightening legislation, and changes in major retailer demand (Walmart's
Sustainable Packaging Scorecard for example) the question is no longer
"if" products and packaging should become more sustainable, but how-to
and how-soon to do it.
ISO standards
The ISO's series of standards relating to packaging and the environment were published in 2013:
ISO 18601:2013 Packaging and the environment - General
requirements for the use of ISO standards in the field of packaging and
the environment
ISO 18602:2013 Packaging and the environment - Optimization of the packaging system
ISO 18603:2013 Packaging and the environment - Reuse
ISO 18604:2013 Packaging and the environment - Material recycling
ISO 18605:2013 Packaging and the environment - Energy recovery
ISO 18606:2013 Packaging and the environment - Organic recycling
Criticism
Efforts
toward “greener” packaging are supported in the sustainability
community; however, these are often viewed only as incremental steps and
not as an end. Some people foresee a true sustainable steady state economy that may be very different from today's: greatly reduced energy usage, minimal ecological footprint, fewer consumer packaged goods, local purchasing with short food supply chains, little processed foods, etc. Less packaging would be needed in a sustainable carbon neutral economy, which means that fewer packaging options would exist and simpler packaging forms may be necessary.
Zero waste, or waste minimization, is a set of principles focused on waste prevention that encourages redesigning Natural resource resource life cycles so that all products are repurposed (i.e. “up-cycled”) and/or reused. The goal of the movement is to avoid sending trash to landfills, incinerators, oceans, or any other part of the environment. Currently 9% of global Plastic recycling plastic is recycled. In a zero waste system, all materials are reused until the optimum level of consumption is reached.
Zero waste refers to waste prevention as opposed to end-of-pipe waste management.
It is a “whole systems” approach that aims for a massive change in the
way materials flow through society, resulting in no waste. Zero waste encompasses more than eliminating waste through reducing, reusing, and recycling. It focuses on restructuring distribution and production systems to reduce waste. Zero waste provides guidelines for continually working towards eliminating waste.
According to the Zero Waste International Alliance (ZWIA),
Zero Waster is the conservation of all resources by means of
responsible production, consumption, reuse and, recovery of all
products, packaging, and materials, without burning them and without
discharges to land, water, or air that threaten the environment or human health.
Advocates expect that government regulation is needed to
influence industrial choices over product and packaging design,
manufacturing processes, and material selection.
Advocates say eliminating waste decreases pollution and can also reduce costs due to the reduced need for raw materials.
Cradle-to-Grave
The cradle-to-grave
is a linear material model that begins with resource extraction, moves
to product manufacturing, and ends with a "grave" or landfill where the
product is disposed of. Cradle-to-grave is in direct contrast to cradle-to-cradle materials or products, which are recycled into new products at the end of their lives so that ultimately there is no waste.
Cradle-to-cradle focuses on designing industrial systems so that
materials flow in closed-loop cycles, which means that waste is
minimized and waste products can be recycled and reused.
Cradle-to-cradle goes beyond dealing with waste issues after it has been
created by addressing problems at the source and redefining problems by
focusing on design. The cradle-to-cradle model is sustainable and considerate of life and future generations.
The cradle-to-cradle framework has evolved steadily from theory to practice.
In the industrial sector, it is creating a new notion of materials and
material flows. Just as in the natural world, in which one organism's
"waste" cycles through an ecosystem to provide nourishment for other
living things, cradle-to-cradle materials circulate in closed-loop
cycles, providing nutrients for nature or industry.
The spread of industrialization worldwide has been accompanied by a large increase in waste production. In 2012 the World Bank
stated that 1.3 billion tons of municipal waste was produced by urban
populations and estimates that the number will reach 2.2 billion tons by
2025 (Global Solid Waste Management Market - Analysis and Forecast).
The increase in solid waste production increases the need for landfills.
With the increase in urbanization, these landfills are being placed closer to communities. These landfills are disproportionately located in areas of low socioeconomic status
with primarily non-white populations. Findings indicated these areas
are often targeted as waste sites because permits are more easily
acquired and there was generally less community resistance.
Additionally, within the last five years, more than 400 hazardous waste
facilities have received formal enforcement actions for unspecified
violations that were considered to be a risk to human health.
There is a growing global population that is faced with limited resources from the environment.
To relieve the pressures placed on the finite resources available it
has become more important to prevent waste. To achieve zero waste, waste
management has to move from a linear system to be more cyclical so that
materials, products, and substances are used as efficiently as
possible. Materials must be chosen so that they may either return safely
to a cycle within the environment or remain viable in the industrial
cycle.
Zero waste promotes not only reuse and recycling but, more
importantly, it promotes prevention and product designs that consider
the entire product life cycle.
Zero-waste designs strive for reduced material use, use of recycled
materials, use of more benign materials, longer product lives, repair
ability, and ease of disassembly at end of life.
Zero waste strongly supports sustainability by protecting the
environment, reducing costs and producing additional jobs in the
management and handling of wastes back into the industrial cycle. A Zero waste strategy may be applied to businesses, communities, industrial sectors, schools, and homes.
Benefits proposed by advocates include:
Saving money. Since waste is a sign of inefficiency, the reduction of waste can reduce costs.
Faster Progress. A zero-waste strategy improves upon production
processes and improves environmental prevention strategies which can
lead to taking larger, more innovative steps.
Supports sustainability.
A zero-waste strategy supports all three of the generally accepted
goals of sustainability - economic well-being, environmental protection,
and social well-being.
Improved material flows. A zero-waste strategy would use far fewer
new raw materials and send no waste materials to landfills. Any material
waste would either return as reusable or recycled materials or would be
suitable for use as compost.
Health
A major issue with landfills is hydrogen sulfide, which is released from the natural decay of waste. Studies have shown a positive association between increased lung cancermortality rates and increased morbidity and mortality related to respiratory disease
and hydrogen sulfide exposure. These studies also showed that the
hydrogen sulfide exposure increased with proximity to the landfill.
Household chemicals and prescription drugs are increasingly being found in large quantities in the leachate from landfills.
This is causing concern about the ability of landfills to contain these
materials and the possibility of these chemicals and drugs making their
way into the groundwater and the surrounding environment.
Zero waste promotes a circular material flow that allows
materials to be used over and over, reducing the need for landfill
space.
Through zero waste the number of toxins released into the air and water
would be decreased and products examined to determine what chemicals
are used in the production process.
Zero waste promotion of a cyclical product life can help reduce the
need to create and fill landfills. This can help reduce incidents of
respiratory diseases and birth defects that are associated with the toxins
released from landfills. Zero waste can also help preserve local
environments and potable water sources by preventing pollutants from
entering the ecosystem.
History
2002–2003
The
movement gained publicity and reached a peak in 1998–2002, and since
then has been moving from "theory into action" by focusing on how a
"zero waste community"
is structured and behaves. The website of the Zero Waste International
Alliance has a listing of communities across the globe that have created
public policies to promote zero-waste practices. There is a zero-waste
organization named the GrassRoots Recycling Network (now known as Zero
Waste USA) that puts on workshops and conferences about zero-waste activities.
The California Integrated Waste Management Board established a zero waste goal in 2001. The City and County of San Francisco's Department of the Environment established a goal of zero waste in 2002, which led to the City's Mandatory Recycling and Composting Ordinance in 2009. With its ambitious goal of zero waste and policies, San Francisco reached a record-breaking 80% diversion rate in 2010,
the highest diversion rate in any North American city. San Francisco
received a perfect score in the waste category in the Siemens US and
Canada Green City Index, which named San Francisco the greenest city in
North America.
2009: The Zero Waste lifestyle movement emerges
In 2008, Zero Waste was a term used to describe manufacturing and municipal waste management practices. Bea Johnson,
a French American woman living in California, decided to apply it to
her household of 4. In 2009, she started sharing her journey through her
blog, Zero Waste Home, and in 2010, was featured in The New York Times.
The article, which introduced the mainstream to the concept of
waste-free living, received much criticism from people confusing it for a
bohemian lifestyle. These critical reviews began to shift after images
of the family and their interior was widely broadcast in worldwide
media. In 2013, Johnson published Zero Waste Home: The Ultimate Guide to Simplifying your Life by Reducing your Waste.
Dubbed "Bible for the zero waste pursuer" by Book Riot, it provides a
simple to follow the methodology of 5R's with in-depth practical tips on
how to eliminate waste in a household. Translated into 27 languages (as
of 2019), the international bestseller helped spread the concept to a
wide audience. Some of Bea's followers and readers went on to start
their own blogs, such as Lauren Singer,
an eco-activist living in New York, whose Social Media channels spread
the concept to millennials, open package-free stores, such as Marie
Delapierre, who opened the first unpackaged store in Germany (based on the model of Unpackaged,
the first package-free concept in our modern era), launch non-profit
organizations, such as Natalie Bino, founding member of Zero Waste
Switzerland.
Over the years, the Zero Waste lifestyle experienced a significant
increase in followers. Thousands of social media channels, blogs,
unpackaged stores,
lines of reusables, and organizations have emerged worldwide. And in
turn, the fast-evolving grass-root movement created a demand for large
corporations, such as Unilever and Procter and Gamble, to conceive reusable alternatives to disposables.
2010 to Present
The movement continues to grow among the youth around the world under the organization Zero Waste Youth,
which originated in Brazil and has spread to Argentina, Puerto Rico,
Mexico, the United States, and Russia. The organization multiplies with
local volunteer ambassadors who lead zero waste gatherings and events to spread the zero waste message.
The International Day of Zero Waste was adopted by the United Nations
General Assembly on December 14, 2022. The event will be held annually
on March 30 commencing in 2023. "During International Day of Zero
Waste, Member States, organizations of the United Nations system, civil
society, the private sector, academia, youth and other stakeholders are
invited to engage in activities aimed at raising awareness of national,
subnational, regional and local zero-waste initiatives and their
contribution to achieving sustainable development. The United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Human Settlements
Programme (UN-Habitat) jointly facilitate the observance of
International Day of Zero Waste."
Returnable glass milk bottlesZero-waste store in Antwerp, Belgium
Milk can be shipped in many forms. One of the traditional forms was
reusable returnable glass milk bottles, often home delivered by a
milkman. While some of this continues, other options have recently been
more common: one-way gable-top paperboard cartons, one-way aseptic cartons, one-way recyclable glass bottles, one-way milk bags,
and others. Each system claims some advantages and also has possible
disadvantages. From the zero-waste standpoint, the reuse of bottles is
beneficial because the material usage per trip can be less than other
systems. The primary input (or resource) is silica-sand, which is formed into glass and then into a bottle. The bottle is filled with milk and distributed to the consumer. A reverse logistics
system returns the bottles for cleaning, inspection, sanitization, and
reuse. Eventually, the heavy-duty bottle would not be suited for further
use and would be recycled. Waste and landfill usage would be minimized.
The material waste is primarily the wash water, detergent,
transportation, heat, bottle caps, etc. While true zero waste is never
achieved, a life cycle assessment can be used to calculate the waste at
each phase of each cycle.
Online shopping
orders are often placed in an outer box to contain multiple items for
easier transport and tracking. This creates waste for every order,
especially when there is only a single item. In response, some products
are now designed not to require an outer box for safe shipping, a
feature known as ships in own container.
It is important to distinguish recycling from Zero Waste. The most
common practice of recycling is simply that of placing bottles, cans,
paper, and packaging into curbside recycling bins. The modern version of
recycling is more complicated and involves many more elements of
financing and government support. For example, a 2007 report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
states that the US recycles at a national rate of 33.5% and includes in
this figure composted materials. In addition, many multinational
commodity companies have been created to handle recycled materials. At
the same time, claims of recycling rates have sometimes been
exaggerated, for example by the inclusion of soil
and organic matter used to cover garbage dumps daily, in the "recycled"
column. In US states with recycling incentives, there is constant local
pressure to inflate recycling statistics.
Recycling has been separated from the concept of zero waste. One example of this is the computer industry where worldwide millions of PC's are disposed of as electronic waste each year in 2016 44.7 million metric tons of electronic waste was generated of which only 20% was documented and recycled. Some computer manufacturers refurbish leased computers
for resale. Community Organizations have also entered this space by
refurbishing old computers from donation campaigns for distribution to
undeserved communities.
Software recycling
A clear example of the difference between zero waste and recycling is discussed in Getting to Zero Waste,
in the software industry. Zero waste design can be applied to
intellectual property where the effort to code functionality into
software objects is developed by design as opposed to copying code snippets
multiple times when needed. The application of zero waste is
straightforward as it conserves human effort. Also, software storage
mediums have transitioned from consumable diskettes to internal drives
which are vastly superior and have a minimal cost per megabyte of
storage. This is a physical example where zero waste correctly
identifies and avoids wasteful behavior.
Use of zero waste system
Zero waste is poorly supported by the enactment of government laws to enforce the waste hierarchy.
A special feature of zero waste as a design principle is that it
can be applied to any product or process, in any situation or at any
level. Thus it applies equally to toxic chemicals as to benign plant
matter. It applies to the waste of atmospheric purity by coal-burning or the waste of radioactive resources by attempting to designate the excesses of nuclear power plants as "nuclear waste".
All processes can be designed to minimize the need for discard, both in
their own operations and in the usage or consumption patterns which the
design of their products leads to. Recycling, on the other hand, deals
only with simple materials.
Zero waste can even be applied to the waste of human potential by enforced poverty and the denial of educational opportunity. It encompasses redesign for reduced energy wasting in industry or transportation and the wasting of the earth's rainforests. It is a general principle of designing for the efficient use of all resources, however defined.
The recycling movement may be slowly branching out from its solid
waste management base to include issues that are similar to the
community sustainability movement.
Zero waste, on the other hand, is not based in waste management
limitations to begin with but requires that we maximize our existing
reuse efforts while creating and applying new methods that minimize and
eliminate destructive methods like incineration and recycling. Zero
waste strives to ensure that products are designed to be repaired,
refurbished, re-manufactured and generally reused.
Significance of dump capacity
Many dumps are currently exceeding carrying capacity.
This is often used as a justification for moving to Zero Waste. Others
counter by pointing out that there are huge tracts of land available
throughout the US and other countries which could be used for dumps.
Proposals abound to destroy all garbage as a way to solve the garbage
problem. These proposals typically claim to convert all or a large
portion of existing garbage into oil and sometimes claim to produce so
much oil that the world will henceforth have abundant liquid fuels. One
such plan, called Anything Into Oil, was promoted by Discover Magazine
and Fortune Magazine in 2004 and claimed to be able to convert a
refrigerator into "light Texas crude" by the application of
high-pressure steam.
Corporate initiatives
An example of a company that has demonstrated a change in landfill waste policy is General Motors
(GM). GM has confirmed their plans to make approximately half of its
181 plants worldwide "landfill-free" by the end of 2010. Companies like Subaru, Toyota, and Xerox are also producing landfill-free plants. Furthermore, the United States Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) has worked with GM and other companies for decades to minimize
waste through its WasteWise program. The goal for General Motors is to
find ways to recycle or reuse more than 90% of materials by selling
scrap materials, adopting reusable boxes to replace cardboard,
and recycling used work gloves. The remainder of the scraps might be
incinerated to create energy for the plants. Besides being
nature-friendly, it also saves money by cutting out waste and producing
more efficient production. Microsoft and Google are two other big
companies that have Zero Waste goals. These two companies have goals to
keep the majority of their waste out of landfills. Google has six locations that have a Zero Waste to Landfill goal. These locations have a goal to keep 100% of their waste out of landfills. Microsoft has a similar goal, but they are only trying to keep 90% of their waste out of landfills. All these organizations push forth to make our world clean and produce zero waste.
A garden centre
in Faversham, UK, has started to prevent plastic plant pots from being
passed down to customers. Instead, it reuses the plastic pots only
locally in the garden center, but upon selling it to its customers it
repots the plants in paper plant pots. It also sells plants wrapped in
hessia and uses a variety of techniques to prevent handing down
(single-use) plastics to customers.
It may also be reused and recycled for something that we can actually use.
"The success of General Motors in creating zero-landfill facilities
shows that zero-waste goals can be a powerful impetus for manufacturers
to reduce their waste and carbon footprint," says Latisha Petteway, a
spokesperson for the EPA.
Market-based campaigns
Market-based, legislation-mediated campaigns like extended producer responsibility (EPR) and the precautionary principle
are among numerous campaigns that have a Zero Waste slogan hung on them
by means of claims they all ineluctably lead to policies of Zero Waste.
At the moment, there is no evidence that EPR will increase reuse,
rather than merely moving discard and disposal into private-sector
dumping contracts. The Precautionary Principle is put forward to shift
liability for proving new chemicals are safe from the public (acting as
guinea pig) to the company introducing them. As such, its relation to
Zero Waste is dubious. Likewise, many organizations, cities and counties
have embraced a Zero Waste slogan while pressing for none of the key
Zero Waste changes. In fact, it is common for many such to simply state
that recycling is their entire goal. Many commercial or industrial
companies claim to embrace Zero Waste but usually mean no more than a
major materials recycling effort, having no bearing on product redesign.
Examples include Staples, Home Depot, Toyota, General Motors and computer take-back campaigns. Earlier social justice campaigns have successfully pressured McDonald's to change their meat purchasing practices and Nike
to change its labor practices in Southeast Asia. Those were both based
on the idea that organized consumers can be active participants in the
economy and not just passive subjects. However, the announced and
enforced goal of the public campaign is critical. A goal to reduce waste
generation or dumping through greater recycling will not achieve a goal
of product redesign and so cannot reasonably be called a Zero Waste
campaign.
Producers should be made responsible for the packaging of the products
rather than the consumers in EPR like campaigns by which the
participation of the Producers will increase.
How to achieve
National
and provincial governments often set targets and may provide some
funding, but on a practical level, waste management programs (e.g.
pickup, drop-off, or containers for recycling and composting) are
usually implemented by local governments, possibly with regionally
shared facilities.
Reaching the goal of zero waste requires the products of manufacturers and industrial designers to be easily disassembled for recycling and incorporated back into nature or the industrial system; durability and repairability
also reduce unnecessary churn in the product life cycle. Minimizes
packaging also solves many problems early in the supply chain. If not
mandated by government, choices by retailers and consumers in favor of
zero-waste-friendly products can influence production. More and more
schools are motivating their students to live a different life and
rethink every polluting step they may take.
To prevent material from becoming waste, consumers, businesses, and
non-profits must be educated in how to reduce waste and recycle
successfully.
The 5 R’s of Bea Johnson
Bea Johnson's 5R
In the book Zero Waste Home: The Ultimate Guide to Simplifying your Life by Reducing your Waste the author, Bea Johnson, provides a modified version of the 3 Rs, the 5 Rs:
Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot to achieve Zero Waste at home. The
method, which she developed through years of practicing waste free
living and used to reduce her family's annual trash to fit in a pint
jar, is now widely used by individuals, businesses and municipalities
worldwide.
Zero Waste Hierarchy
The
Zero Waste Hierarchy describes a progression of policies and strategies
to support the zero-waste system, from highest and best to lowest use
of materials. It is designed to be applicable to all audiences, from
policymakers to industry and the individual. It aims to provide more
depth to the internationally recognized 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle); to
encourage policy, activity and investment at the top of the hierarchy;
and to provide a guide for those who wish to develop systems or products
that move us closer to zero waste. It enhances the zero-waste
definition by providing guidance for planning and a way to evaluate
proposed solutions. All over the world, in some form or another, a
pollution prevention hierarchy is incorporated into recycling
regulations, solid waste management plans, and resource conservation
programs. In Canada, a pollution prevention hierarchy otherwise
referred to as the Environmental Protection Hierarchy was adopted. This
Hierarchy has been incorporated into all recycling regulations within
Canada and is embedded within all resource conservation methods which
all government mandated waste prevention programs follow. While the
intention to incorporate the 4th R (recovery)prior to disposal was good,
many organizations focused on this 4th R instead of the top of the
hierarchy resulting in costly systems designed to destroy materials
instead of systems designed to reduce environmental impact and waste.
Because of this, along with other resource destruction systems that have
been emerging over the past few decades, Zero Waste Canada along with
the Zero Waste International Alliance have adopted the only
internationally peer-reviewed Zero Waste Hierarchy that focuses on the
first 3Rs; Reduce, Reuse and Recycle including Compost.
Zero waste jurisdictions
Various governments have declared zero waste as a goal, including:
An example of network governance
approach can be seen in the UK under New Labour who proposed the
establishment of regional groupings that brought together the key
stakeholders in waste management (local authority representatives, waste industry, government offices etc.) on a voluntary basis.
There is a lack of clear government policy on how to meet the targets
for diversion from landfill which increases the scope at the regional
and local level for governance networks.
The overall goal is set by government but the route for how to achieve
it is left open, so stakeholders can coordinate and decide how best to
reach it.
Zero Waste is a strategy promoted by environmental NGOs but the
waste industry is more in favor of the capital intensive option of
energy from waste incineration. Research often highlights public support as the first requirement for success.
In Taiwan, public opinion was essential in changing the attitude of
business, who must transform their material use pattern to become more
sustainable for Zero Waste to work.
California is a leading state in the United States for having
zero-waste goals. California is the state with the most cities in the
Zero Waste International Alliance. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, multiple cities have defined what it means to be a Zero Waste community and adopted goals to reach that status.
Some of these cities include Fresno, Los Angeles, Oakland, San
Francisco, Pasadena, Alameda, and San Jose. San Francisco has defined
zero waste as "zero discards to the landfill or high-temperature
destruction." Here, there is a planned structure to reach Zero Waste
through three steps recommended by the San Francisco Department of the
Environment. These steps are to prevent waste, reduce and reuse, and
recycle and compost.
Los Angeles defines zero waste as "maximizing diversion from landfills
and reducing waste at the source, with the ultimate goal of striving for
more-sustainable solid waste management practices." Los Angeles plans
to reach this goal by the year of 2025. To reach this goal, major changes will have to be made to product creation, use, and disposal.
Zero-waste stores
Retail stores specializing in zero-waste products have opened in various countries, including Spain and the United States.
Technocriticism studies these personal and social practices in
their changing practical and cultural significance. It documents and
analyzes both their private and public uses, and often devotes special
attention to the relations among these different uses and dimensions.
Recurring themes in technocritical discourse include the deconstruction of essentialist concepts such as "health", "human", "nature" or "norm".
Ethical socialism can be traced back to the utopian socialists, especially Henri de Saint-Simon and Charles Fourier, but also anarchists such as the French socialist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon as well as Italian revolutionaries and socialists such as Giuseppe Garibaldi and Giuseppe Mazzini. Those utopian socialists, one of the first currents of modern socialist thought, presented visions and outlines for imaginary or futuristic ideal societies, characterized by the establishment of a moral economy, with positive ideals based on moral and ethical grounds being the main reason for moving society in such a direction. Before Marxists established a hegemony over definitions of socialism, the term socialism was a broad concept which referred to one or more of various theories aimed at solving the labour problem through radical changes in the capitalist economy. Descriptions of the problem, explanations of its causes and proposed solutions such as the abolition of private property or supporting cooperatives and public ownership varied among socialist philosophies.
Ethical socialism had a profound impact on the social democratic movement and reformism during the later half of the 20th century, particularly in Great Britain.
Ethical socialism is distinct in its focus on criticism of the ethics
of capitalism and not merely criticism of the economic, systemic, and
material issues of capitalism. When the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) renounced orthodox Marxism during the Godesberg Program in the 1950s, ethical socialism became the official philosophy within the SPD. The decision to abandon the traditional anti-capitalist policy angered many in the SPD who had supported it.
Some such as Ian Adams also argue that this was an abandonment of the
classical conception of socialism as involving the replacement of the
capitalist economic system and make a distinction between classical socialism and liberal socialism.
R. H. Tawney denounced self-seeking amoral and immoral behaviour that he claimed is supported by capitalism. Tawney opposed what he called the "acquisitive society" that causes private property to be used to transfer surplus profit to "functionless owners", i.e. capitalist rentiers. However, he did not denounce managers as a whole, believing that management and employees could join in a political alliance for reform. Tawney supported the pooling of surplus profit through means of progressive taxation to redistribute these funds to provide social welfare (including public health care, public education, and public housing) and the nationalization of strategic industries and services.
He supported worker participation in the business of management in the
economy as well as consumer, employee, employer and state cooperation in
regulating the economy.
Although Tawney supported a substantial role for public
enterprise in the economy, he stated that where private enterprise
provided a service that was commensurate with its rewards that was
functioning private property, then a business could be usefully and
legitimately be left in private hands. Thomas Hill Green supported the right of equal opportunity
for all individuals to be able freely appropriate property, but claimed
that acquisition of wealth did not imply that an individual could do
whatever they wanted to once that wealth was in their possession. Green opposed "property rights of the few" that were preventing the ownership of property by the many.
Ethical socialism was advocated and promoted by former British prime minister Tony Blair, who has been influenced by John Macmurray, himself influenced by Green. Blair has defined ethical socialism with similar notions promoted by earlier ethical socialists such as emphasis on the common good, rights, and responsibilities, and support of an organic society in which individuals flourish through cooperation.According to Blair, the Labour Party
ran into problems in the 1960s and 1970s when it abandoned ethical
socialism and believes that the party's recovery required a return to
the ethical socialist values last promoted by the Attlee government.
However, Blair's critics (both inside and outside Labour) have accused
him of completely abandoning socialism in favour of capitalism.
